There is a trend away from the old style capsule seal on the top of a wine bottle to a security cap or anti-pilfer seal. The cap can be of a paper type and mere are variations through to a wax cap which approaches an old method of using scaling wax. Present bottle filling rates appear to demand that any sealing device is premade and only attachment takes place on the production line.
Known wax caps from the United States are made of xe2x80x9cwaxxe2x80x9d and are adhered to the top of the cork using hot-melt glue. The top of the cork is pushed a small distance into the neck of the bottle so that the wax cap when attached is approximately flush with the top of the bottle.
xe2x80x9cWaxxe2x80x9d has some inherent problems when used for this purpose. It is a convenient material and is relatively easy to handle but it has a limited range of useful temperatures. When cooled below the glass transition temperature it becomes very brittle and susceptible to shattering when subject to the entry of a cork screw. The temperature range between glass transition temperature and the softening point is limited to about 40xc2x0 C. while the melting point is below 100xc2x0 C. The xe2x80x9cwaxxe2x80x9d currently being used appears to have a glass transition temperature close to the temperature of a domestic refrigerator, which means that some caps shatter when the cork is extracted. The softening temperature appears to be less than that reached inside a car when in direct sunlight, which again is a problem.
Further to the above, the known wax caps take the form of a basic disc having flat upper and lower surfaces. A flat lower surface in particular leaves little room for the application of hot melt adhesive between the cap and the top of the cork. As a result, the adhesive can leak from the side of the cap during application and leave little adhesive in position to secure the cap to the cork and at the same time deposit a mess of adhesive on the lip of the bottle.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate at least one of the above disadvantages and/or more generally to provide an improved anti-pilfer cap.
There is disclosed herein an anti-pilfer device for application to a cork of a wine bottle, the device having a disc formed from a material having a relatively wide useful temperature range as defined herein, the disc being provided with a recess in at least one surface thereof, which recess is adapted to accommodate adhesive.
Preferably, the disc is formed of plastics material.
Preferably, the recess is cylindrical.
Alternatively, the recess can be in the form of a concavity.
Preferably. the cap has an annular rib about the recess or recesses.
Preferably, the device is engineered to have a low penetration strength so that it is easy to insert a cork screw therethrough for removal of the cork from the bottle.
Preferably, the cap is formed of polymer wax.
There is further disclosed herein a combination including a bottle having a neck, a cork received wholly within the neck and the and-pilfer device as disclosed above, wherein adhesive is located in the recess and serves to secure the disc of the anti-pilfer device to the cork.
Preferably, the anti-pilfer device is positioned wholly within the rack.
As used herein the term xe2x80x9crelatively wide useful temperature rangexe2x80x9d is intended to mean that the glass transition temperature is below xe2x88x925xc2x0 C. while the softening point is not reached until in excess of 100xc2x0 C. The melting point is well above this.